Hello everyone,
In February, I was scrolling through an article which lists all the readathon available this year (link here), and as I was checking them, I came across the Trope-ical readathon.
I found it cool to do as you have at the same time prompts in general but also prompts and a book for your team to do. You have five teams based on book genres: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Mystery/Horror/Thriller, Contemporary/Literary/Historical Fiction, Non-Fiction/Poetry. Basically, you should complete the most prompts you can, either in your team prompts or general prompts and read a book of your group (you have the choice between two: one old and one new.) You don’t have to stick to a specific genre for the common prompts; it’s only for the team ones.
Another good thing is that you need to track your page numbers and then prompts you’re doing as you have a leaderboard, and at the end of the month, a team “win”. It’s a friendly competition as you have nothing to win; however, it encourages you to read more. You also have reading sprints on Twitter to accompany you through the duration of the readathon.
The point system is not complex; the prompts are 50 points by prompts for the general ones and 100 points for the team ones. Each page is 1 point, and if you read one of the team books, it’s 150 points to add to your team.
This edition of the readathon started on the 1st of March and lasted one month.
The prompts
As to say before, there are two sets of prompts: team prompts and general prompts, but there are all based on tropes you can find in books. For the team, you have two prompts and a book to read. And for the general, you have thirteen prompts. However, you can choose to do the given prompt or the alternative prompts.
Here is the general prompts list (the alternative is in italics):
- Absent/dead parents, a book with multiple authors
- War setting, a book you could use as a weapon
- Coming-of-Age, a book that shape who you are
- Dystopia, a book someone else has choose for you
- Small town, a book with a one-world title
- Blast from the past, a book published before 2000
- Mixed media, an audiobook
- Artificial Intelligence, an ebook
- Boarding School, a buddy read
- Enemies to lovers/friends, a book you previously DNFed
- Multiple POV, multiple POC characters
- The new kid in town, a genre you don’t usally read
- Retelling, a book with a TV or movie adaptation
I choose the Contemporary/Literary/Historical Fiction team, and here is my team prompts and books list:
- Read a book with “bookish” theme
- Read a book featuring a historical figure
- Fat Chance Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The books
I decide to start with my team prompts before beginning with the general prompts, but between theory and practice, there is a gap that I couldn’t fill. I just read the book I wanted without any specific order. Still, I had a particular TBR to complete all of the team challenges, read the book of my team, and do some common challenges.
In the end, as I read more books in March than I thought, I have done a lot more in this challenge. There is only one that I couldn’t use for this readathon. I complete all my team’s challenges (the two prompts and the book) and six common prompts.
Before starting the month, I estimated to have 3,716 points. However, I have a total of 4,149 points, so 433 more than I thought.
Here is the list of the books I read for the common prompts I have done:
- The Lost Hero by Rick Riordian (Absent/dead parents)
- King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo (War setting)
- Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell (A book with a one-world title)
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Coming-of-Age)
- The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (Multiple POV)
- Dearly: Poems by Margaret Atwood (a genre you don’t usally read)
Here is the list of the books I read for my team prompts and my team book:
- Much Ado About You by Samantha Young (Read a book with “bookish” theme)
- The Words I Never Wrote by Jane Thynne (Read a book featuring a historical figure)
- Fat Chance Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado (Team book)
My experience
At the beginning of the month, I really liked to enter my points in my bujo and on the website of the readathon. I also enjoyed a lot seeing the points go up on the leaderboard. As it’s the first time doing it, I was excited to do it. The prompts were easy to find in the books that I have on my unread shelf. However, when the readathon’s novelty started to disappear, it was difficult for me to stay up to date. I enjoyed reading my book, and I didn’t care much to earn points for it.
Also, I had a problem with the team parts of this readathon. You can choose the team you want, and you don’t have a maximum of people. We do it for fun, and you can’t stop people from choosing the team they want just because you have a limited number. However, this problem of the number of people in a team impacts the leaderboard as the leader in the team who has the higher average points. The problem is that the team with fewer people will be the winner from the beginning as the average points will always be higher. This put me off the readathon quickly as I don’t find it fair for the other team.
Sadly, I will not be doing it again. First, because of this unequal team problem also because I found that one month it’s too much for me, I prefer to do one-week maximum. Nevertheless, last year I have done one readathon in April, and it was also one month, so I don’t know… maybe it’s the format that I didn’t like.
I didn’t feel to have surpassed myself with this readathon, and it was more of a burden in the end. However, I am happy to have tried it. I will continue for sure to do readathons as they are fun to do. You just need to find the ones for you. And you, have you already participate in one readathon? Or do you want to do it? Which one?
If you have any experience with this kind of readathon, don’t hesitate to share it in the comment.
Bye, bye
Liz.
Books & Reviews 